


Burning Lungs

by FemaleJaeger



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action, Angst, Ass-Kicking, Big Brother, Blood, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Cussing, Female Pronouns for Reader, Female Reader, Fist Fights, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hospitalization, Kidnapping, Molestation, Post Season 6, Punching, Reader-Insert, Season 6 Spoilers, Spoilers, Torture, i promise to do other things in the future, like 1984, lol another reader insert are you even surprised at this point, mob, sometimes you just gotta ride the creative wave when it comes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 04:53:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15284094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FemaleJaeger/pseuds/FemaleJaeger
Summary: The team landed on a planet that was very similar to Earth. The citizens looked just like humans, the technological level was about the same, and the even the architecture looked reminiscent of something that could be found on Earth. It was like looking in a distorted mirror. Everything looked good but there was something off about the planet that reminded you it wasn’t your home.





	Burning Lungs

**Author's Note:**

> Just a one-shot, it was a passing thought I should write in different genres. This is for Action.

The team landed on a planet that was very similar to Earth. The citizens looked just like humans, the technological level was about the same, and the even the architecture looked reminiscent of something that could be found on Earth. It was like looking in a distorted mirror. Everything looked good but there was something off about the planet that reminded you it wasn’t your home.

That didn’t stop the other paladins from enjoying themselves.

“Look!” Lance pointed, “They’re selling ice cream!” Lance ran over to the shop window followed by Hunk and Pidge. The three of them had stars in their eyes as they watched the store clerk scoop a cone for the current customer.

“Oh,” Shiro remarked to himself and when you and the Alteans looked over he explained, “it feels like ages since I saw a dog.” Shiro got a little teary eyed watching the golden retriever like creature being walked across the street.

“Well, I’m sure it’s safe enough, you should go pet it!” You encouraged.

The look of pure joy that washed over Shiro was worth landing on this planet. He jogged over and chatted with the owner for a brief second before bending down and scratching the pet behind the ears. Keith drifted over towards the group, his wolf at his heels and excited to meet the dog.

At the same time, Allura and Coran found something that interested them, “What is that?” Allura asked.

You turned to look at what she was pointing at. “Oh that’s a movie theater.” There was no knowing how much or how little the Alteans knew about this, you weren’t sure it ever came up before but judging by their confused looks you decided to continue with a clarification. “It’s where people pay money to gather and watch films that were created by other people.”

“But why not watch it in the comfort of your own home?” Allura asked.

“Well you can, but when new movies are made, they are usually exclusively shown in a theater like this one before becoming available elsewhere.”

“Huh. So then you come to this establishment to watch the newest creation and meet other people?” Coran was trying to confirm.

“Not exactly. You can come here with people you know but you aren’t here with the objective to meet new people. Most of the time you watch the movie alongside strangers and then leave without ever interacting with the other patrons.”

“Very interesting.” Coran was looking at the movie poster outside the cinema.

“We have time. If you two wanted to watch a movie we could meet back up in the town’s main square when you are finished.”

“Oh, can we Coran?” Allura pleaded.

“I don’t see the harm in it Princess. It will give us a little insight into our human compatriots,” Coran winked back at you as Allura pulled him along.

Just like that, you found yourself alone in the busy crowd. First you took out your communicator to tell everyone to meet in the town square in two hours. You got an immediate response from some of the paladins and those that didn’t respond were hopefully with someone who knew. Now you had two hours to kill. An idea sprang to mind and you started walking down the street looking for something that might be similar.

Soon you found yourself inside this planet’s equivalent to a bookstore or library, you still weren’t sure. Either way, there were books on shelves and you felt like you were home. Sure the technology on other planets was astonishing and impressive. The advancements that some cultures had made in the way of medicine and others had made in transportation was awe-inspiring. But being in this little building made you miss Earth, even if the production of paper books was seen as wasteful on those advanced planets, it was something familiar. As you looked around you decided on one of the history books. There would be no harm in learning a bit about this planet that seemed to reflect your own. That was your fault for assuming.

There hadn’t been anyone in the shop when you walked in except the assistant in the front. You found a chair in the back and relaxed into the book.

After reading the first chapter you looked up to see another customer looking at you. You offered a smile but they grunted and returned to looking at their book. Weird, you thought but shrugged it off as a difference of norms. The book that you had arbitrarily picked up had been enlightening so far. It was mostly focused on political views of the past and thus far only hinted about the current governance. Looking at the table of contents, you found a chapter labeled “Expectations of Today and Tomorrow” that sounded like it would tell you about how this society is run. You skipped ahead and started reading.

You tried to contain your panic as your read more and more. You were right when you had thought that there was something off about this planet. From what you could understand, this entire planet was actually run by something like a mob that had connections to the police, the politicians and important production companies. They call themselves Phantom. This chapter outlined their propaganda. The three ideas that were talked about are as follows:

  1. Phantom is everywhere, watching.
  2. If you look for Phantom there will be nothing to be found.
  3. Phantom will take care of you if you pay, there is no problem that can’t be fixed.



So basically, Phantom was a for hire Big Brother. Great.

When you looked up, there was an additional customer browsing in the bookshelves. You started getting bad vibes so you closed up the book and head to the front to check out or borrow the book. The assistant wasn’t anywhere to be found. The newest customer was heading to the front and the customer that was in the chair was getting up. All the alarms were going off in your head and all you could think about was getting out of there. You put the book down on the counter and made for the door as quickly as you could without making a scene. Your path out was blocked when a third man stepped in front of the door from the outside. Glancing back you saw the other two men closing in, clearly not here for books. You took a deep breath and prepared yourself.

“You’re coming with us.” The man that had been blocking the door reached out to grab your arm.

You spun around hitting his hand back with you left hand, “I don’t think so!” You punched him in the gut quickly with your right hand.

He leaned over groaning. You couldn’t get in another shot on him because you felt another hand grab your shoulder. You shrugged out of the grip and kicked backwards. You connected with the man’s shin and he growled out his frustration. The last man jumped forward and picked you up in a bear hug that restricted your arms and got you off the floor. You kicked and thrashed furiously but the man didn’t release you. In a last ditch effort you threw your head back and it connected with his face. It hurt but he loosened his grip in his daze of you breaking his nose. You squirmed yourself down and bit down on the man’s forearm hard enough to draw blood. He howled and dropped you. The first two men had recovered and made their way towards you. There was no way to over power them both so you looked for exits. You dodged in between shelves trying to get to a back exit. There wasn’t any, and now you found yourself cornered with two men in front of you and a very angry and bloody faced third coming straight for you. You threw a punch at the closest man but he caught it. You tried to pull away but he laughed. In your struggle to free your hand the second man grabbed your other hand and shoulder.

“You couldn’t just come with us quietly, could you?” The man with the broken nose smiled, “I guess you aren’t from these parts but I’ll let you know now, that shit isn’t gonna go unpunished.” The two men holding your arms stepped on your feet completely immobilizing you. The bloodied man pat you down, making sure to pay extra attention to your chest. You tried to move away from his disgusting hands.

When he smirked and moved his hand between your legs, you followed your gut reaction to scream, “Let go of me you!” but you knew they wouldn’t actually do that. You struggled with all your might and freed your left leg. Swiftly you brought your knee to connect with what was in between his legs.

He wailed and fell to his knees while the man on your left stomped back down on your foot with crushing force. The bloody faced man who you assumed was the leader of the three, angrily looked at his associate and then at you. “You’ll pay for that.” He stood back up and showed you your communicator in his hand. “You’re not going to need this where we’re going.” He broke the device in half and dropped it to the floor. As he turned to leave he said, “Let’s go.”

The two men holding you moved and before you could retaliate they knocked you out with a swift punch to the jaw. They let your body hit the floor before one of them threw you over their shoulder and exited the shop behind the boss.

~

The team had once again gathered in the town’s center. Allura and Coran were the last to walk up to the group deep in conversation about what they had just seen. They started telling the group about their experience. Shiro and Keith were listening but also on the lookout for you. Maybe you couldn’t find your way back? Shiro looked at his communicator and it told him that your status was offline. He had never seen that status before.

“Hey Pidge, can you check your communicator?” Shiro asked.

When Pidge pulled it out, they recognized why Shiro had asked. “That’s weird. I didn’t think you could turn these off?”

“What is it?” Coran asked.

Coran would know better than anyone so Shiro explained, “It says that y/n’s status is offline, what does that mean?”

“That’s not possible.” Coran quickly took his own communicator out and the others followed to see what was happening. “Pidge was right you can’t turn it off, not without it being docked.”

“Well it was their idea to meet here, I doubt they would have head back to camp without saying anything,” Hunk interjected.

“What else could cause the status?” Lance asked.

“The only thing I can think of would be if the communicator is broken,” Coran answered.

Everyone paled. Shiro jumped into action, “Allura, head back to camp to look for y/n. Hunk head to the North. Keith the West. Pidge the South. Lance the East. Coran stay here to see if they turn up.”

“What about you?” Allura questioned.

“This shows the last known location,” Shiro pulled up a menu, “I’ll head there and let you know what I find.” No one moved so Shiro reassured, “I’m sure they’re fine. They can take care of themselves.”

~

You blinked your eyes. Where were you? You were on your back on a hard concrete floor looking up at a metal roof a couple stories high.

“Look who’s awake,” a deep voice cut the silence and you pushed yourself to look at who it was.

You hadn’t seen this man before. He hadn’t been with the guys that had kidnapped you but you knew he wasn’t on your side. He had an air of superiority about him even though he wasn’t anything special to look at. He was on the shorter and wider side. He was balding and his wrinkles told you that he was older. You could take him.

“Don’t try anything,” He read your mind and two of the thugs from before stepped into the light.

“What do you want with me?” You backed away as the two men came closer.

“Everything in due time,” the boss raised his hand and the two goons jumped at you. You dodged one but caught the others elbow in your side as he turned. It stunned you for a second and the first man you had managed to miss, swung his arm at you. With no time to react, you caught the full hit and you were thrown back. You tried to stay on your feet but there was an unexpected but out off the floor, you tripped and slid a foot before you rolled to a stop. You rolled onto your back to catch your breath then mustered up some strength to stand back up. You had an idea and ran back into the fray. First, you body checked the first guy, just threw your whole body at him and it threw him off balance, he fell and you had an opening. After a few steps though a hand grabbed your ankle and you came crashing down hard, you caught yourself but the concrete was unforgiving on the hands and wrists. You looked up as the leader took a step towards you, sure that he was safe. “Where are you from? You look like us but you’re not.”

You stayed quiet.

“Not talking, huh?” He laughed, “Good thing we know how to make people talk.”

~

No one could find you. Not in the town, not at the camp, you just vanished. Shiro finally found the place the device was last located. There was no one in the small bookshop. He looked around and whispered your name but there was nothing. As he was exiting thinking that maybe he got the location wrong he spotted the device behind a stack of books on the floor. He picked it up but there was only half in his hand. Quickly he sent out a message to the rest of the group about it and looked around for more clues. The only thing that seemed out of place for him was a book on the counter, like someone had wanted to buy it but the transaction never happened. “Maybe it was left by y/n?” Shiro thought as he picked it up and skimmed some of the contents. What he found was worrying.

~

“Right now your lungs are probably burning… aching with every inhale.” The leader placed his glass upon the table and took a deliberately long clear breath before he started again. With a rough hand he grabbed your chin and raised it sharply so you were eye to eye, “Why don’t you tell me who sent you so we can be done here?”

How long had you been here? It felt like hours. You took a few shallow breaths that pained every muscle in your chest before you answered, “Fuck you.”

He slapped you. “Nope, sorry that wasn’t the answer I was looking for,” He turned to the men waiting on the sidelines, “Do it again.”

One henchman grabbed you by the hair and dragged you back over to a tub. He dropped you in front of it like a piece of dirty clothing.

You knew what was coming next; you wanted to cry out but had no energy left. “This is it,” you thought.

The other lackey with the busted nose grabbed your shoulders and brought you into a seated position next to the tub. You could see the dirty water through heavy eyelids and tried as best you could to prepare yourself.

“Anything you wanna say sweet cheeks?” The man whispered harshly in your ear from behind.

“Yeah…” you started, “Is your ass jealous of the amount of shit that comes out of your mouth?.”

“Oh darling, you best watch _your_ mouth so I don’t have to wash it out!” and with that he shoved your head into the water.

You flailed as hard as you could to get free of the man’s grip but had no luck. You hopelessly tugged at the ropes that bound your arms behind your back. It felt as if the seconds ticked away faster and faster. “This is probably it… he’s really gonna kill me this time” you thought. If pulling on the ropes that were keeping you from saving yourself would have helped you already tried it, if yelling would have helped, you already tried it, and if pretending to be dead would have helped, you already tried it. There was nothing left to do but give up. Your movements slowed as you were already past your limit and eventually you stopped resisting altogether. Your eyes became unfocused and then shifted to black.

When you came to, you were back in position for questioning. The ropes around your hands were hooked in a chain connected to the crane machine that kept you on your knees when all you wanted was to collapse on the floor. You coughed up water as you became more aware.

“Oh, good morning sunshine, get some good beauty rest?” You were too tired to look up but it was still the leader talking, you were sure. “It’s a shame really, so young, so beautiful, too bad you don’t follow orders, it woulda saved us a lot of time and it woulda saved you a lot of pain.” He started walking closer, “This is the last time I’ll be asking nicely, next I’ll be demanding it.” Slowly he asked, “Where… is…” he grabbed your face again, “…Voltron?”

He had learned through outside sources that Voltron’s paladins had made an appearance on the planet. It didn’t take a genius to notice you, an outsider, snooping around in an unpopulated area and the rumors of Voltron happening together was more than a coincidence. You refused to sell out your friends and the universe’s greatest hope. “With your whore of a mother,” you rasped.

He dropped your face and laughed maniacally. “Oh so you wanna have fun now? You like jokes, huh? Do you fucking think this is a joke?” The unmistakable click of the hammer of a gun being pulled back seemed to echo around the warehouse.

There was silence for a long while. Then you felt the cool metal touch your forehead.

“Last chance girl, you don’t tell me where you’re keeping Voltron; you don’t take another breath, capisce?”

You stayed silent, still fighting to get air in your lungs.

He smacked the gun across your cheek, leaving you now slouching to his left and a burning under your eye. “You better speak when spoken to. Now…” With the pistol, he nudged your face back towards him, “answer me.”

“No…” you whispered.

“I’m sorry I didn’t quite hear you, I thought you said no… that can’t be right can it?” He was so close to you now, you could smell the alcohol on his breath, “wanna try again?”

“No.”

“Ha!” He spun around, “hahahahaha, I gotta admit you got guts bitch, too bad you ain’t one of us.” He wasted no time raising his firearm to the very face he had just complimented.

You waited for what felt like years before you heard the gunshot. You were ready to die, you did what you had to for the team and no one but you was going to have to suffer because you hadn’t given them any information. Finally the gunshot landed its hit.

Instead of instant death, you screamed out in pain, “Fuck!” Your right leg felt like it was on fire. “Shit… I thought you were gonna kill me!?” You hissed at your harasser.

“Yeah, I was, but I figured maybe now you’d be more willing to talk…I can’t kill you until you give me the information I need. I think the next shot is gonna be in the other leg, what do you fellas think?” He looked over at his flunkies.

“Sounds good boss,” the one who drowned you spoke first.

“Whatever,” another spat.

The boss sighed, “Good help is so hard to come by these days,” quieter he added, “you get what you pay for I guess.”

“Just fucking kill me. I’m not telling you shit,” you snarled through gritted teeth. In a burst of rage, you tugged at the ropes and chains holding you. You dragged your tired legs into a slouched standing. One of the henchmen had tightened the chains so your hands were still stuck above you. It was taking all of the energy you had to just be upright.  Also blinded by the pain in your leg; there was no way you could do anything like this but you wanted to intimidate them.

He called your bluff. With a skilled motion he spun his leg around closely hitting the gunshot wound and successfully knocking the you off your feet. For a second you felt suspended in the air but the henchman who had been holding the chains let go and you dropped with a thud.

You were done… you couldn’t even sit up. Every breath was pain, every movement was pain, and even your thoughts were clouded by pain.

“See girl, what was your name again… ?”

“Y/n,” you answered, too tired to think of a witty comeback to go along.

“Oh yes… y/n,” he said with disgust, “you don’t have to die yet but I think we need some time apart so you can think about your situation here with me and then maybe you’ll feel like talking. Thomas put her back up,” The lackey grabbed Emma by the ropes on her hands and reattached them to the chains forcing you to sit up. “Me and my boys are gonna go get some breakfast, why don’t you just hang out here till we get back? Did you want us to get you anything?” He and his little crones laughed to themselves as they grabbed their coats and left.

“Shit I’ve been here all night?” You thought, “I could call for help… but I don’t even know where I am, would anyone hear me?” Your leg hurt beyond belief and your wrists were sore from the ropes. “Fuck it, there isn’t anyone who will hear me now if they didn’t hear me before anyway so why bother,” you concluded as you closed your eyes slowly.

~

“Y/n? Y/n!?” The voice seemed distant and muffled, like you were hearing them through earplugs but you could hear the stress in their tone.

You slowly became aware of your surroundings without having to open your eyes. There were multiple people running in from different areas in the warehouse. You could feel the heat of day beat down on you from a hole in the ceiling, “maybe they forgot about me after breakfast…” you thought.

The voice was closer now, “Y/n, my god, what happened?! This wasn’t supposed to happen! Get her down…” when no one moved, “NOW!”

There was a shuffling of feet, you could feel hands trying desperately to release the ropes. They managed to get the chains undone first.

Completely run-down, you fell forward. You had expected to fall to the ground almost happy to be one with the concrete but you were caught by someone. Your eyes slowly blinked open as they were saying your name again.

“Y/n…”

Someone had cut the ropes around your wrists and instantly you rubbed the sores, “Shiro?” You whispered.

“Yeah it’s me,” he whispered back, “but don’t talk right now.”

“They’re coming back,” you had to warn them.

“No, never, we caught them this morning.”

You coughed roughly and moaned a little before saying, “Shiro, its ok,” you attempted to smile even though you knew that you were a mess, “I’ll be ok.”

“You look and sound like shit,” he tried to joke, “but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place, if I had known, I wou-“

You placed a hand on his cheek lightly, “no, we had no way of knowing, I’m glad it was me, no one else was hurt and Voltron is safe… mmmnn…” Your hand slowly slid down Shiro’s face leaving small trails of dirt and blood on his cheek.

He looked down at your face as it went from pained to lifeless. “Y/n? Y/n! Y/N! Keith get the cars ready right now, we gotta go! Hunk can you carry her to the car?”

“Leave it to me,” Hunk came over to where Shiro and you had been sitting on the floor and gently picked you up from the puddle of blood that had gathered around you.

“Coran is there anything you can do for her right now?” Shiro was panicked but trying to contain it.

“I can dress her superficial wounds but she lost a lot of blood and that bullet hole…” he shifted uneasily.

“Fine, do what you can with what we have with us, the rest will have to wait until we get back.” Shiro almost sprinted to where the car was. “Dammit,” he cursed to himself.

“What can I do?” Lance asked.

“Um uh… Coran’s gonna have to ride in the car with Y/n, and I wanna be there too, can you drive?”

“Yeah! No problem!” Lance nodded and went to get in the driver’s seat, he was more than aware that his best friend was in danger but reckless driving wasn’t going to help any so he pushed his own feelings deep down to focus on the task at hand.

Everyone filed into their respective cars and took off speeding towards the closest hospital.

~

You were tired, so tired that you slept for two entire days before you finally woke up. When you finally awoke, the first thing you noticed was being in a hospital. You were just absently looking around and taking in your surroundings since it seemed so quiet and you were alone. The quietness ended when your stomach made the loudest gurgling sound in hunger. You pressed the nurse help button and waited patiently.

The nurse came in frazzled but quickly lightened up when she realized there wasn’t any threat to your life. “Oh! You’re awake. How are you feeling? Any pain anywhere?” She went through a routine of checking papers and machines, making sure everything was in order.

“I’ve been better,” You tried to speak but your throat was so dry and sore. “Besides a low dull pain in my leg, I think I’m fine,” your stomach growled again grabbing the nurse’s attention, “ok actually I’m starving,” you laughed.

“I think the lunch carrier is still in the hall, I’ll grab you a tray,” the nurse laughed back.

“Thank you!” You called after the nurse as she left.

As soon as the tray was in front of you, you started digging in like a wild animal.

“I see nausea isn’t a problem,” the nurse giggled to herself, “I’ll leave you to your food; if you need anything don’t hesitate to give me a ring.” She started for the door, “Oh yeah!” she spun around, “was there anyone you wanted us to contact now that you’re awake? Anyone you want to see?”

“Hmmm…” You paused stuffing your face, “for now no. I know they are probably worried but if you call them they’ll feel like they have to come by here to visit me this very moment, and at this very moment I just want to eat this,” you motioned to the tray. “Just give me a couple minutes if that’s ok?”

“Alright that’s fine…” the nurse had almost shut the door when you heard her bump into something. There was mumbling outside the door and a second voice was getting loud until the door to your room burst open.

“Y/n!” It was Shiro. He seemed to have a wild look in his eyes and judging by the bags under them, he was extremely exhausted.

“Hi,” was all you could think to say, you had the worst way with words.

“Y/n… Y/n!” Shiro seemed relieved at first but it was quickly replaced with some kind of anger and disappointment.

“W-what?”

“Why didn’t the nurse tell me you were awake?” Shiro asked.

“Because I told her not to yet,” you looked down at your food kind of upset that you had been selfish.

“And why would you do that?” Shiro gave you the chance to explain yourself.

“Because I was eating and I didn’t want to trouble you all yet…I’m not going anywhere,” You tapped your leg and laughed at your own joke, “I can wait.”

Shiro stared at you in disbelief. “You know if you weren’t in a hospital you’d get a smack on the back of the head.” He sat down in the chair you hadn’t noticed that was next to the bed. He sighed, scratched the back of his neck and then reclined in the chair.

“Can I eat?” you asked tentatively.

“Yeah, yeah do whatever,” Shiro rubbed his eyes and kept them shut.

You continued to eat with the same veracity but tried to be as quiet as possible. When you were done, you pressed the nurse’s button and peeked over at Shiro.

He was quietly sleeping on the chair. There was something that seemed to be different about him, you just couldn’t put her finger on it. His hair was still a beautifully striking white. His features softened as he began sleeping. Small snores escaped his lips and you giggled.

“You know he’s been here the most of anybody,” the nurse was at the door and her sudden words made you jump a little. She made her way to the end of the bed, “He refused to leave the first night and the second night we forced him to go but he was back bright and early the next day.” “He was really worried about you,” She smiled as she cleared the dishes.

“He’s my superior. I answer to him and he's responsible for the team so of course he’d be worried… I'm supposed to be able to protect at least myself…” you fumbled with your sheets embarrassed by what you admitted.

“You may say that but you didn’t see what I saw… I’ve seen a lot of things hun and your Leader over there was worried about you more than just as a subordinate,” The nurse put the small table away and opened the window shades. “Will that be all for now?”

“Yes, thank you… Taryn right?” you smiled.

“Yep, you’re welcome,” she smiled as she turned to leave.

**Author's Note:**

> I know I'm back on my BS with another Reader-Insert lol I just wanna be a part of the action too lol


End file.
